Sluttishly Sweet: Chilli Chocolate Orange Brigadeiros

A big bonus of my friends and family knowing how much I love all things edible is that any presents are pretty much guaranteed to be food related. Recently my big sister came back from a trip to Italy with a fabulous book all about chocolate - a scented book no less - chocolate smelling recipe pages! The book had a recipe for a Brazilian treat called Brigadeiros.

Brigadeiros are basically the Brazilian version of a chocolate truffle. I've added my own twist on the basic recipe by adding chilli flakes and orange flower extract but you can leave those out or play around by adding vanilla/chopped nuts/desiccated coconut or whatever takes your fancy, likewise they're traditionally rolled in chocolate vermicelli but instead I've used 2 types of cocoa.

You'll need:

• 400g can sweetened condensed milk
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• pinch sea salt flakes
• 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
• 2 capfuls orange flower water
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

To decorate:

• grated pure cocoa bar ( I use Willies Carenero Superior)
• cocoa powder

Make it!

1. Put everything into a small heavy based saucepan and heat gently, stirring all the time over a low heat for about 15 minutes.
2. Pour into a bowl and put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes to harden slightly. Rub some butter on your hands to prevent the mixture sticking to you then take a teaspoon of mixture and roll it into a ball. Roll half the balls in grated cocoa and the other half in the powder, placing them on a sheet of greaseproof paper once covered. If the balls are not holding their shape then just pop them back in the fridge for a bit to harden then re-roll.